Clue one of The Philosopher's Stone.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago - I'm doing a MKAL (Mystery Knit A Long) of Fiddle Knits' The Philosopher's Stone. It uses gradient yarn and beads.  It combines cables and lace (really, really addicted to cable projects) and I have never used as many different cable crossovers as in the 40 rows of clue one.  The yarn I'm using is Alpaca Cloud fingering, which is a little fuzzy for this much cabling (I really didn't predict this much cabling from teh swatch pattern provided)  but it is super soft, and I think the cable definition will improve with light blocking and the lighter colours as I swap out skeins for the gradient effect.  So that I don't "spoil" the mystery -- I'm posting the picture below the page break - so click if you want to see clue 1.

Shawl updates

 Finished chart 2 on Ghost Dance

Got to week 12 on Last Year's Scoreboard

Got another repeat done on the METs shawl

Signed up for the Philosopher's Stone Mystery Shawl KAL.  A gradient yarn was recommended.  I had the black and the 2 lighter grey yarns already, so I bought the medium grey and the beads -- even swatched!!  Ready to go for the 22nd.

 

Nothing finished - but updates on 2 summer shawls.

 I'm halfway through chart 2 (of 4 and with 4 increases evry other round chart 4 will be a doozy) of Ghost Dance in  Manos del Uruguay Alegría Locura Fluor.

I'm up to row 44 on Luciole - (MET's Shawl if you follow me on Rav).

Blocking my Spring Spirits Kerchief - need to wait for it to dry before sewing it onto an elastic headband.

Nothing finished but... startitis hit!

First I started my METS Shawl : (the orange/blue beaded one I discussed last week)

I'm using the pattern Luciole:

The yarn and beads is working well, I did have to redo a few times.  There is one block where there are 2 purls but that isn't listed in the legend and I thought the gap was created when I blew up the chart so I ended up short stitches the next patterned row.  The other thing is this pattern's chart is all on one page!  You couldn't read it with a microscope!  I had to blow it up 250% and I still had to blow up the 2 stitch from one and 3 stitch from one symbols on the screen to see them!  I was able to figure out the 3 was only used on the border/edge and the 2 was only used in the field, but still!  Either way I'm liking it!

I'm also making a Ghost Dance shawl ( summer scarf) with Manos Alegria in all the colours!!

Finished the knitting of Sleeves

It's been awhile.. Almost 2 years... On and off... But the knitting part of  Sleeves is finally done!!! ( Sleeves is like a cross between a shawl and a shrug- meant to be worn over tank tops... And I love tank tops) just have to weave in the ends and block. I should be able to wear it for Thanksgiving!!!!

The only thing about the end of summer that makes me sad

The last few nights we have had "killing frost" temps dropping into the 20's.  So I went out and harvested what I could (I'm considering fried green tomatoes as they don't seem to be ripening in the bowl) Chopped and froze or set out to dry all my peppers.  Cut down and cooked the last of the rainbow chard (seriously I harvested each plant at least 4 times this summer - magic)

What makes me sad is I had eggplants that were on the plants and the eggplant, pepper and tomatoes still had more flowers (each flower a potential yummy goodness) It's like they were trying to make more and they didn't know they were going to die.  I wish I had a greenhouse I could have moved them to ( potential bugs mean I can't move them in to the house) I'm thinking of trying to make "cages" out of thin pvc piping that I can cover with heavy clear plastic drop cloths  as "mini greenhouses"  for both next spring and next fall.  This will probably end up being my winter project - so you may see more about those later.  

Fortunately my favorite flowers - Montauk  Daisies can make it through until the  hard freeze comes (or freezing rain) light snow they can handle, freezing rain not so much.

weekend's balcony bounty

Sunday's picking - not a good shot- just to annoy my father in law

Seriously, the rainbow chard just keeps growing back after I cut it! I love chard, Curt probably not as thrilled - but I love it in my breakfast eggs so that's where the extra goes.

Bunch of tomatoes - the tiny yellow ones are coyotes.. OMG so perfectly sweet! A few mini red bells made their way to this bowl.

Early wonders, an overripe kermit and cukes.

Mini sweet bells - these seem to cycle one color at a time, had purples early last week, yellows a few days later, now reds.. although some more purples aren't far behind.  Grace these are the mini bells, my goldens, purple and chocolate full size peppers are still most definitely green.

Life Update.

 I know I've been quiet lately - tried to blog the other day from my phone but it didn't go through - some error message with the picture.  My father in law needed some stents put in -I know he's had cholesterol issues, and despite the issues he's had with cholesterol meds they put him back on.  Me, I've just learned I have cubital tunnel, pretty bad on the left arm, less of a problem in my right elbow.  My left elbow has gotten so bad, I have pretty much constant "electric shocks" from my elbow to my outer fingers, have weird feelings in my pinky and ring fingers, and  pins and needles that wake me up at night.  So limiting the time knitting, need splints that make it hard to sleep at night and braces that prevent bending my elbow to much during the day. UGH. Also need to figure out how to use my phone - I tend to hold it with my left hand and swipe with my right. 

I'll be posting a few  of the posts my phone didn't send later, I can send them to the computer and hopefully post from there.  But recapping, I read a few books, created a new shelf --  "Life is Too Short" because I have been just deleting them off of the Goodreads site, but I almost got the same book again!

Went to Pocono Speedway for the race weekend - there is a rant about that. Serious rant. and Garden pics of course!! 

Just some pictures of the balcony garden as a whole

Little Owl's Night

I'm somewhat concerned about my nephew - and the fact that he keeps being read the same books, so much that his mom knows them by heart and they don't use the actual book!! While I am all for telling kids stories, I think it is important to actually read to them from the book.  The Angie learned to recognize certain words because as we read, we would point at the words in the book.  I'm not saying I never screwed up raising her - but she did turn out well imho. 

Anyway I bought several board books, and am making stuffed knit/crochet versions of the starring animals to give him.  I started by using a tried and true (can't tell you how many owls I've made with this pattern already) Pattern with bigger needles and three strands of yarn held together.  I then cut circles from off white felt ( didn't have any white apparently) and the biggest non bulgy frog safety eyes I had.

I did my best embroidering the beak - can't say that's a craft I do well at all!!

I am now working on a Giraffe to go with a book about Giraffes can't dance.  Right now he's a worm with eyes.  I've done the head, body and ears - I'm working on his legs now, then his horns, mane and tale.  Then I will be doing a fox for Fox in Socks.   
 

Not much to show

Not much to show on the crafting front this week.  I did finish the neckband of my vest, need to do the armbands, but that required more counting than I could successfully accomplish (had a low grade headache for most of the week) so no pictures on that yet.  I started a hexagon afghan for my mom from yarn leftover from projects I made for my nephew Christopher.  I screwed it up already - but I can work around it.  I made hexagon 1, then 2 then 7.. so I had to pick up 2 sides to do 3 and I'll have to fudge 4  a bit, 5 will be fine... no picture of this yet either.  I also got about 1/2 the foot of my second sock done.  Hopefully next week's post will be filled with pictures. 

What I actually have a picture of:



I crocheted a bunch of "charms" (shamrocks and some leprechaun hats) then crocheted a gold hatband and attached them.



close up

Tomato... To-Mah-To ... part 2

My favorite heirloom - Mr Stripey grew about 4" this week and now has 2 blooms!



Cherokee purple - another amazing heirloom - grew 4" as well but no blooms yet.



The chocolate cherry is one of the Angie's favorite salad tomatoes



For the first time this year - I have the yellow pear - supposed to be the size of a cherry but pear shaped.  Most yellow tomatoes are lower acid (not that acid bothers me - but sometimes are better with more delicate pasta and seafood dishes) and should be cool tossed into a salad.



I also have an ace - pretty high yield round red tomato.



And sharing a window box with my cucumbers is a super sweet 100



Coming soon - peppers, eggplant & cukes!!

Tomato ... To-mah-to?

So after a week of HOT (as in 100+ degree heat indexes)  weather, I figure I'll do an update on the balcony garden.

Some EVIL critter - my best guess is a squirrel - dug one of my baskets and ended up cutting roots of my solar flare tomato!!  It was potted with soil left over from last year - and I wonder if said critter hid an acorn or something in the soil and went looking for it??  I did find a few acorns in the bag - since we live under an oak tree I thought they had fallen in..So fingers crossed.. but it does look pretty wilted.



My bush tomato has about a dozen tomatoes- none are showing any signs of wanting to ripen however.



Celebrity is a late fruiter - so just growing a bit - not much else to report on'



Lemon boy - also a late fruiter is just hangin' out



I bought the Sweet n Neat - because it claimed a profusion of bite sized tomatoes on a plant that maxed out at one foot tall.  They must be right because it is currently 8" tall and has a bunch of blooms



More tomorrow.

I need to find another book to read.

I'm not doing so well with my reading challenge for the year.  I've been reading a book since early last month, and it is a good book, just not the kind that I can pick up and read a hundred pages at a time.  I am on page 170 - not even halfway on chapter 18.  I'll be popping into the library on Monday for sure!

Knit updates.

Here are my last 2 entries for Round 2 of Nerdwars.  The deadline was Sunday.  First was for the challenge where you had to cross into another nerddom.   I made a potions box cover.  I decided to send a box with various herbal teas, homeopathic remedies, herbs, Zicam, Airborne etc.  When the Angie got strep right before finals, at home in NJ I had the perfect teas etc. that would have made her life easier while the antibiotics did their work.  But the key to these is starting them right away, not waiting for mom to ship them.  So this way she will have some of my core stuff, and if she gets sick I can tell her what to take.  I used a double layer snap-loc container with a handle.  I crocheted a fitted top - there is supposed to be an owl cable on each side,  but I never cabled in crochet before and I don't think they came out that good.  I knit a cabled owl applique to put on the center.



The white owl ties into Hedwig - Harry Potter's white owl.  The box tied into the Angie's life because Temple's mascot is the Owls.


For my challenge project on mythology- I   used the greek goddess Athena. (thank's Min!)  Athena is often pictured with an owl , and amongst other things Athena is the patron of weapons.  My daughter fences on the Temple club team, and uses pvc pipes cut in lengths as blade protectors.  She drills 2 holes near the top and uses a mini bungee through her handle/hilt to hold it on.  Originally, I was going to knit a long tube as well to create a sabre cozy, but I ran out of time.  Then, when I needed to take a picture on Sunday night, the Angie was out with her friends until well past my bedtime, so I used her plastic sword from her Dance Competition production number about the civil war - For the Glory.

Knitting Update

First -  My friend Grace is on Twitter!! Yay!!!  (does the Happy Dance!)

Hey - my post actually starts with a reference to Grace!  Cool Co-incidence?  Anyway- if you check out Grace's blog LovinComfortKnits  You will see she has been on  kick to knit monsters.  Cute monsters mostly if not all (sorry Grace - sometimes it's hard to keep up - you knit faster than my brain processes information) by Rebecca Danger.  I have shown some of them to Curt, if he happens to be sitting by me when I read her blog. As Curt watched me knit these:




He thought I was joining Grace knitting monsters.  In fact, he thought he knew which monster I was knitting.  If any of you watched Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network (don't remember which) in the 90's before all the really crappy shows came on you may remember a show called "Aahh , Real Monsters"  It revolved around a couple of monsters attending Monster School - and having to scare people/pets for their assignments.  One of these monsters was Oblina - the female monster.

For the record, I am not knitting siblings for Oblina.  I am actually knitting Alan Darts Chess Set and these pieces seamed together will be the chess board.  Although Curt seemed kind of disappointed that it wasn't her that I may make one for his birthday in November.


I am knitting the set for NerdWars on Ravelry. To get the 50 points for midpoint check in I needed to be at 50% by yesterday.  I posted the picture for check in at 1100pm.  So I had a whole hour to spare!  So I kind of need to hustle because now I need to knit 32 pieces by Aug 31.

Beer Fest part 2

Tell me you don't want this outdoor kitchen?  It's the kitchen in the chef's garden (an actual garden- tomatoes and other things from the garden were used in lunch) outside the "biosphere" which is not a sphere by the way.  The chef on the right on his cell phone is Kevin Sbraga ( he was on Top Chef)  His food was nothing short of amazing.

For the Beer Tasting and Seminar, before the actual festival, a 6 course lunch was served with each dish matched to a different beer.  A woman - sorry don't remember her name, who is a judge at craft beer competitions - seriously I need her job, described the flavor notes in each pairing that made them a good match.

A beer I never would have tried out of TX - had ruby red grapefruit and ginger added during the brew Shiner Ruby Redbird went with the first course of lamb kabobs with za'tar and yogurt sauce.  Both were amazing.  I realize I'm going to go nuts trying to find more of this beer!



Course 2 was a SMOKED (as in the whole thing was smoked) turkey rueben with spicy thousand island.  Paired with sierra Nevada Summerfest.  Followed by Carmelized Onion Flatbread with savory peach comfit & foie gras paired with Blue Moon Honeymoon.  Soo good - ask Grace - me and onions usually not going to happen.  Next came Andouille sliders with garden cucumbers and cilantro paired with Sam Adams Summerfest (a beer I already knew I liked) I came to realize I have clearly been hitting the wrong burger joints!  This was followed by the Chef's Garden BLT with Beach House American Pils . interesting for a pilsner, I usually don't care for them but while I won't go out of my way for this, I would drink this again.  The heirloom tomato on the sammie was actually creamy.  It was excellent!  Finally dessert was a Wood roasted Apricot with pomegranate glaze and Cricket Hill Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale.  I had 2!!  The concept of breakfast ale is intriguing isn't it?  And was good - I'll be buying this again.

After this, we went down the hill to the 9th hole for the actual festival.  There were some really good beers there.  There were some really terrible beers there (Lobster ale while intriguing sounding should be dumped into the sea)  And for whatever reason (probably because they make Blue Moon) coors was there with their banquet beer (ok some people may not have had that) but Coors Light?? Seriously - who that drinks beer hasn't had Coors Light at least once??  My favorite and I will definitely be looking for this is a barrel aged ale from Scotland.  Innis - they have regular barrel aged which is good, but OMG their rum barrel aged??  rich, caramel deep dark amazing beer!



The bbq they served was decent - but after lunch it was hard to follow.  They had a really, really, really bad mostly 80's cover band.  What they lacked in talent, ability and musicality they made up for with enough amps and speakers to play a stadium.  Seriously people- if you suck at Springsteen, don't do his covers in NJ in front of a bunch of people drinking unlimited beer tastings, hostility will result. It was so bad I kept having to leave the tent.

Overall - if you like beer and you get the opportunity I would definitely recommend going - but if you do spring the extra $40 and go to the seminar first. 



AND, lest you think I was setting a bad example for the Angie - we didn't drive.  We stayed at a B&B nearby - Alpine Haus and had a car sent from Vernon Taxi to drop us off and come back for us.  The driver was a really nice guy, if you are ever in need of a ride in Sussex county call them. We got back to the B&B around 7, I took a 2 hour nap.  Then we went to the Vernon Diner & Pancake House for a late supper.  AND  got carrot cake to go.   We only missed 100 laps of the truck race- I guess there was a sizeable red flag - so were surprised that we could have dessert with the end of the race.
Alpine Haus was great- I actually want to go back and stay in the carriage house for a weekend in the fall.  I was awake at 5 and amused myself with Ravelry on the tablet, I started a book, and worked on a strip of my chess board project.  We had reserved the 9am breakfast, because Curt just likes to sleep late. I had heard a lot about their breakfast, it did not disappoint.  Great coffee, a blueberry/coconut muffin, baked peach , bacon and upside down french toast.  Even after all we had on Saturday I cleaned my plate.

weekend

This weekend was Curt's father's day getaway gift to the NJ Beer and Food Fest held at Crystal Springs Spa & Resort.  The weather and the venue were gorgeous.  Check out this view!


You can actually see both PA and NY from up there!

We got there a bit early because I had our tickets on will call - turns out no tickets just a list anyway.  There were a bunch of these chair/bed/pod things - I wish I had brought knitting or a book!



And seriously - I need one of these outdoor beds!





to be continued....